DEBRE BERHAN UNIVERSITY

COLLA GE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTEMENT OF CIVIL
ENGINEERING
HIGHWAY ENGINEERING THESIS PROPOSAL
GEOMETRIC DESIGN OF A HIGHWAY
GROUP MEMBER ID/NO
1.mekuanent asmare………………………..0652/10
2.mohammed ahmed………………………..3450/10
3.aragaw yalew………………………………….0122/10
4.markon zemenefes……………………….…0447/10

SUBMMITED TO INSTRUCTOR ABEBE.

SUBMISSION DATE APRIL 13.

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
we would like to express our gratitude to our supervisor ABEBE for providing
great input in this work. He gave me the greatest opportunity by letting our doing
research on such interesting topic.

TITTLE
GEOMETRIC DESIGN OF A HIGHWAY
    . Abstract
Highway Engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with the design, construction and
maintenance of road surfaces, and the organization and supervision of the personnel
required in highway construction and maintenance.  Included are the required earthwork and
the drainage system (except bridges and culverts which are classed as structural engineering
guard fences and direction and warning signs.
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION ABOUT HIGHWAY
ENGINEERING………………………………………………………………………………..3
1.2 EXPLANATION ABOUT GEOMETRIC DESIGN OF A
HIGHWAY……………………………………………………………………………………..4
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT…………..……………………………………………7
1.4 GENERAL OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT………………………………………..7
1.5 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF OUR PROJECT ……………………………………….7
1.6 METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………………………………….8
1.7 DISCUSSION……………………………………………………………………………..9
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 A HIGHWAY PAVEMENT………………………………………………………………10
2.1 TYPES OF PAVEMENT…………………………………………………………………..11
2.2 TYPICAL LAYERS OF A FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT………………………………….……12

2.3 FAILURE OF FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS………………………………………………13

2.4 RIGID PAVEMENTS………………………………………………………….……….….14
2.5 W0RK PLAN…………………………………………………………………………………15
REFERENCE………………………………………………………………….….….…….…..16
APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………................16
 1.1 What is Highway Engineering? Highway Engineering is a specialized field within the
discipline of Transportation Engineering that involves the planning, design, construction,
operation, and maintenance of roads, bridges, and tunnels to ensure safe and effective
transportation of people and goods. Highway Engineering considers all aspects related to the
design of the roads themselves, as well as how pedestrians are managed. Highway Engineering
has expanded to include a new area of focus for this discipline on the implementation and use
of intelligent transport systems that will eventually revolutionize the way humans travel day to
day.

What is Road Building? Road Building is defined as the art and science of construction,
rehabilitation and maintenance of existing roadway facilities. It is a continuous process of study
and research, for up to this time there is no definite solution yet formulated to avert road failures.

These early road systems were constructed primarily for the following purposes:
1. For the movement of armies in their conquest and for defense against invasion.

2. For transport of food and trade of goods between neighboring towns and citie

1.2 EXPLANATION ABOUT GEOMETRIC DESIGN OF A HIGHWAY

The geometric design of highways deals with the dimensions and layout of visible features of
the highway. The emphasis of the geometric design is to address the requirement of the driver
and the vehicle such as safety, comfort, efficiency, etc. The features normally considered are
the cross section elements, sight distance consideration, horizontal curvature, gradients, and
intersection. The design of these features is to a great extend influenced by driver behavior and
psychology, vehicle characteristics, traffic characteristics such as speed and volume. Proper
geometric design will help in the reduction of accidents and their severity. Therefore, the
objective of geometric design is to provide optimum efficiency in traffic operation and maximum
safety at reasonable cost. The planning cannot be done stage wise in this case like that of a
pavement, but has to be done well in advance. The main components that will be discussed are:

1. Factors affecting the geometric design,

2. Highway alignment, road classification,
3. Pavement surface characteristics,
4. Cross-section elements including cross slope, various widths of roads and features in
the road margins.
5. Sight distance elements including cross slope, various widths and features in the road
margins.
6. Horizontal alignment which includes features like super elevation, transition curve, extra
widening and set back distance.
7. Vertical alignment and its components like gradient, sight distance and design of length
of curves.
8. Intersection features like layout, capacity, etc.

2 Factors affecting geometric design

A number of factors affect the geometric design and they are discussed in detail in the following
sections.

2.1 Design speed

Design speed is the single most important factor that affects the geometric design. It directly affects the
sight distance, horizontal curve, and the length of vertical curves. Since the speed of vehicles vary with
driver, terrain etc, a design speed is adopted for all the geometric design.

Design speed is defined as the highest continuous speed at which individual vehicles can travel with
safety on the highway when weather conditions are conducive. Design speed is different from the legal
speed limit which is the speed limit imposed to curb a common tendency of drivers to travel beyond an
accepted safe speed. Design speed is also different from the desired speed which is the maximum speed
at which a driver would travel when unconstrained by either traffic or local geometry.

Since there are wide variations in the speed adopted by different drivers, and by different types of
vehicles, design speed should be selected such that it satisfy nearly all drivers. At the same time, a higher
design speed has cascading effect in other geometric designs and thereby cost escalation. Therefore, an
85th percentile design speed is normally adopted. This speed is defined as that speed which is greater
than the speed of 85% of drivers. In some countries this is as high as 95 to 98 percentile speed.

2.2 Topography

The next important factor that affects the geometric design is the topography. It is easier to construct
roads with required standards for a plain terrain. However, for a given design speed, the construction cost
increases multiform with the gradient and the terrain. Therefore, geometric design standards are different
for different terrain to keep the cost of construction and time of construction under control. This is
characterized by sharper curves and steeper gradients.

2.3 Other factors

In addition to design speed and topography, there are various other factors that affect the
geometric design and they are briefly discussed below:

1. Vehicle: :The dimensions, weight of the axle and operating characteristics of a vehicle influence
the design aspects such as width of the pavement, radii of the curve, clearances, parking
geometrics etc. A design vehicle which has standard weight, dimensions and operating
characteristics are used to establish highway design controls to accommodate vehicles of a
designated type.
2. Human: The important human factors that influence geometric design are the physical,
mental and psychological characteristics of the driver and pedestrians like the reaction
time.
3. Traffic: It will be uneconomical to design the road for peak traffic flow. Therefore a reasonable
value of traffic volume is selected as the design hourly volume which is determined from the
various traffic data collected. The geometric design is thus based on this design volume, capacity
etc.
4. Environmental: Factors like air pollution, noise pollution etc. should be given due consideration
in the geometric design of roads.
5. Economy: The design adopted should be economical as far as possible. It should match with
the funds alloted for capital cost and maintenance cost.
6. Others: Geometric design should be such that the aesthetics of the region is not
affected.
We will discuss on alignment, classification and factors affecting GD.

 Road classification

The roads can be classified in many ways. The classification based on speed and accessibility
is the most generic one. Note that as the accessibility of road increases, the speed reduces.
(See figure 1). Accordingly, the roads can be classified as follows in the order of increased
accessibility and reduced speeds.

1. Freeways: Freeways are access-controlled divided highways. Most freeways are four
lanes, two lanes each direction, but many freeways widen to incorporate more lanes as
they enter urban areas. Access is controlled through the use of interchanges, and the
type of interchange depends upon the kind of intersecting road way (rural roads, another
freeway etc.)
2. Expressways: They are superior type of highways and are designed for high speeds
( 120 km/hr is common), high traffic volume and safety. They are generally provided with
grade separations at intersections. Parking, loading and unloading of goods and
pedestrian traffic is not allowed on expressways.
3. Highways: They represent the superior type of roads in the country. Highways are of two
types - rural highways and urban highways. Rural highways are those passing through
rural areas (villages) and urban highways are those passing through large cities and
towns, ie. urban areas.
4. Arterials: It is a general term denoting a street primarily meant for through traffic usually
on a continuous route. They are generally divided highways with fully or partially
controlled access. Parking, loading and unloading activities are usually restricted and
regulated. Pedestrians are allowed to cross only at intersections/designated pedestrian
crossings.
5. Local streets : A local street is the one which is primarily intended for access to
residence, business or abutting property. It does not normally carry large volume of
traffic and also it allows unrestricted parking and pedestrian movements.
6. Collector streets: These are streets intended for collecting and distributing traffic to and
from local streets and also for providing access to arterial streets. Normally full access is
provided on these streets . There are few parking restrictions except during peak hours.

In order to undertake a preliminary electronic

design of a roadway project, a high-quality
topographical survey is required. The objective of
the topographical survey is to provide a digital
terrain model of the roadway corridor, with all the
roadway features that exist in the corridor, recorded
in three dimensions, that is coordinated and with
levels. Relevant features that should be recorded in
the topographical survey include:

 Roadway edges and road markings along the corridor and at least one hundred meters
along all intersecting roads;
 Property-line boundaries and road-reserve boundaries;
  All stormwater catch pits or channels along the route with invert levels on all pipe work;
 Street-light poles, traffic-signal poles, traffic-signal controllers, and any other street
furniture;
 Trees, both by location and girth;
 Bridges, culverts, overpasses, and underpasses;
 Underground services, like electricity, drainage, water, and sanitation. These may have to
be verified through hand excavation to get spot heights and locations.

The quality of the topographical survey can have a

significant impact on the ability of design engineers
to design accurately, and inaccurate survey work
can lead to design errors and potential construction
claims. A high-quality specification for the
topographical survey would be prepared to ensure
that all tendering survey firms are aware of the
quality required. The tender process should ensure
that only those surveyors with the relevant
qualifications can be awarded this task.

1.3  OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

:
1. Maximize the comfort, safety and economy of facilities.
2. Provide efficiency in traffic operation.
3. Provide maximum safety at reasonable cost.
4 . Minimize the environmental impacts.
1.4 General objective of the project
The objectives planned to be achieved by this construction project are
stated below:

 Construction of a road of high quality that would ensure easy transportation

 The path to be followed by the road has been designed so as to connect the
major trading spots and business houses, industries and commercial areas.
 The engineers to be involved in the construction work will be given
advanced training in of new techniques and methods

1.5 Specific Objectives of our project

 To construct a highway with safe,efficient,and economic traffic

operations while maintaining esthetic and environmental quality
 To design the road which should be conform to the design
speed,the characteristics of the vehicle and derivers using the road.
 To design a pleasing and attractive view road.
 1.6    Methodology
 PROJECT AREA
 our project is the road which it start from debre berhan to ankober .

The data presented in this project is gathered from

 technical books,
 interviews, and
 expertise culled from work experiences.
 the data given by our advisor
 surveying data
 information from interview
 from era manual.
 SOFTWARE
 We use civil 3D SOFTWARE
 Manuals
 ERA Manual 2013.

1.7  Discussion
Planning
Planning a proposed highway involves the gathering of statistical information from every
available source.  Surveys must be made to decide on the prospective location, the designed
features and adjacent

The design of a highway must be correlated with features of location, the terrain, consideration
of present and future use, the over-all plan for development of the transportation system and
must be based upon both local and regional needs.

The detailed design of a highway project includes drawings on blue prints to be used for
construction.  These plans show, among other information, the exact location, the dimension of
such elements as roadway width, the final profile for the road, the location and type of drainage
facilities and the quantities of work involved, including earthwork and surfacing.

Soil Study
In planning the grading operations, the design engineer considers the type of material to be
encountered in excavating or in cutting away the high points along the project and how the
material removed can best be utilized for filling or for constructing embankments across low
areas elsewhere on the project.  For this, the engineer must analyze the gradation and physical
properties of the soil, determine how the embankment can best be compacted and calculate
the volume of earthwork to be done.

Drainage
Adequate drainage is the most important element in road and highway construction.  Much of
highway engineering is devoted to carry streams across the highway’s right of way.

. Construction
After designs are specified on the basis of plans, the work of building the road is begun  The
preparation for the roadbed’s foundation called grading is done first.  It includes round
excavation, the formation of embankments and the smoothing of slopes.  The first step is to
remove all vegetation from the roadway section, an operation in which the bulldozer plays a
large part.  Then, a heavy earth-moving machinery moves materials from cut section into fill
sections, where the materials is placed in layers, brought to the proper moisture content, and
compacted to the required density.

Highway Pavement
Highway paving is the smooth waterproof having the material composition, strength and
durability needed to withstand the estimated traffic and weather conditions.  The types of
pavement may be classified as low cost, intermediate and heavy duty.

CHAPTER TWO
A highway pavement is a structure consisting of superimposed
layers of processed materials above the natural soil sub-grade, whose primary
function is to distribute the applied vehicle loads to the sub-grade. The pavement
structure should be able to provide a surface of acceptable riding quality, adequate
skid resistance, favorable light reflecting characteristics, and low noise pollution.
The ultimate aim is to ensure that the transmitted stresses due to wheel load are
sufficiently reduced, so that they will not exceed bearing capacity of the sub-grade.
Two types of pavements are generally recognized as serving this purpose, namely
flexible pavements and rigid pavements. This chapter gives an overview of
pavement types, layers, and their functions, and pavement failures. Improper
design of pavements leads to early failure of pavements affecting the riding quality.

Requirements of a pavement
An ideal pavement should meet the following requirements:

 Sufficient thickness to distribute the wheel load stresses to a safe value on

the sub-grade soil,
 Structurally strong to withstand all types of stresses imposed upon it,
 Adequate coefficient of friction to prevent skidding of vehicles,
 Smooth surface to provide comfort to road users even at high speed,
 Produce least noise from moving vehicles,
 Dust proof surface so that traffic safety is not impaired by reducing visibility,
 Impervious surface, so that sub-grade soil is well protected, and
 Long design life with low maintenance cost.

2.1 Types of pavements

The pavements can be classified based on the structural performance into two,
flexible pavements and rigid pavements. In flexible pavements, wheel loads are
transferred by grain-to-grain contact of the aggregate through the granular
structure. The flexible pavement, having less flexural strength, acts like a flexible
sheet (e.g. bituminous road). On the contrary, in rigid pavements, wheel loads are
transferred to sub-grade soil by flexural strength of the pavement and the
pavement acts like a rigid plate (e.g. cement concrete roads). In addition to these,
composite pavements are also available. A thin layer of flexible pavement over rigid
pavement is an ideal pavement with most desirable characteristics. However, such
pavements are rarely used in new construction because of high cost and complex
analysis required.

Flexible pavements

Flexible pavements will transmit wheel load stresses to the lower layers by grain-
to-grain transfer through the points of contact in the granular structure (see
Figure 1).
Types of Flexible Pavements

The following types of construction have been used in flexible pavement:

1. Conventional layered flexible pavement,

2. Full - depth asphalt pavement, and
3. Contained rock asphalt mat (CRAM).

flexible pavements are layered systems with high quality expensive materials are
placed in the top where stresses are high, and low quality Conventional cheap
materials are placed in lower layers.

Full - depth asphalt pavements are constructed by placing bituminous layers directly

on the soil sub-grade. This is more suitable when there is high traffic and local materials are
not available.

Contained rock asphalt mats are constructed by placing dense/open graded

aggregate layers in between two asphalt layers. Modified dense graded asphalt concrete is
placed above the sub-grade will significantly reduce the vertical compressive strain on soil
sub-grade and protect from surface water.

Conventional flexible pavements are layered systems with high quality expensive

materials are placed in the top where stresses are high, and low quality cheap materials are
placed in lower layers.
Full - depth asphalt pavements are constructed by placing bituminous layers directly
on the soil sub-grade. This is more suitable when there is high traffic and local materials are
not available.

Contained rock asphalt mats are constructed by placing dense/open graded

aggregate layers in between two asphalt layers. Modified dense graded asphalt concrete is
placed above the sub-grade will significantly reduce the vertical compressive strain on soil
sub-grade and protect from surface water.

2.2 Typical layers of a flexible pavement

Typical layers of a conventional flexible pavement includes seal coat, surface

course, tack coat, binder course, prime coat, base course, sub-base course,
compacted sub-grade, and natural sub-grade (Figure 2).

Seal Coat:

Seal coat is a thin surface treatment used to water-proof the surface and to provide
skid resistance.

Tack Coat:

Tack coat is a very light application of asphalt, usually asphalt emulsion diluted with water.
It provides proper bonding between two layer of binder course and must be thin, uniformly
cover the entire surface, and set very fast.

Prime Coat:

Prime coat is an application of low viscous cutback bitumen to an absorbent surface like
granular bases on which binder layer is placed. It provides bonding between two layers.
Unlike tack coat, prime coat penetrates into the layer below, plugs the voids, and forms a
water tight surface

Surface course is the layer directly in contact with traffic loads and generally contains
superior quality materials. They are usually constructed with dense graded asphalt
concrete(AC). The functions and requirements of this layer are:

 It provides characteristics such as friction, smoothness, drainage, etc. Also it will

prevent the entrance of excessive quantities of surface water into the underlying
base, sub-base and sub-grade,
 It must be tough to resist the distortion under traffic and provide a smooth and skid-
resistant riding surface,
 It must be water proof to protect the entire base and sub-grade from the weakening
effect of water

 Binder course
This layer provides the bulk of the asphalt concrete structure. It's chief purpose is
to distribute load to the base course The binder course generally consists of
aggregates having less asphalt and doesn't require quality as high as the surface
course, so replacing a part of the surface course by the binder course results in
more economical design.

Base course

The base course is the layer of material immediately beneath the surface of binder
course and it provides additional load distribution and contributes to the sub-
surface drainage It may be composed of crushed stone, crushed slag, and other
untreated or stabilized materials.

Sub-Base course

The sub-base course is the layer of material beneath the base course and the primary
functions are to provide structural support, improve drainage, and reduce the intrusion of
fines from the sub-grade in the pavement structure If the base course is open graded, then
the sub-base course with more fines can serve as a filler between sub-grade and the base
course A sub-base course is not always needed or used. For example, a pavement
constructed over a high quality, stiff sub-grade may not need the additional features offered
by a sub-base course. In such situations, sub-base course may not be provided.

Sub-grade

The top soil or sub-grade is a layer of natural soil prepared to receive the stresses
from the layers above. It is essential that at no time soil sub-grade is overstressed.
It should be compacted to the desirable density, near the optimum moisture
content.

2.3 Failure of flexible pavements

The major flexible pavement failures are fatigue cracking, rutting, and thermal cracking.
The fatigue cracking of flexible pavement is due to horizontal tensile strain at the bottom of
the asphaltic concrete. The failure criterion relates allowable number of load repetitions to
tensile strain and this relation can be determined in the laboratory fatigue test on asphaltic
concrete specimens. Rutting occurs only on flexible pavements as indicated by permanent
deformation or rut depth along wheel load path. Two design methods have been used to
control rutting: one to limit the vertical compressive strain on the top of subgrade and other
to limit rutting to a tolerable amount (12 mm normally). Thermal cracking includes both
low-temperature cracking and thermal fatigue cracking.

2.4 Rigid pavements

Rigid pavements have sufficient flexural strength to transmit the wheel load stresses to a
wider area below. A typical cross section of the rigid pavement is shown in Figure 3.
Compared to flexible pavement, rigid pavements are placed either directly on the prepared
sub-grade or on a single layer of granular or stabilized material. Since there is only one
layer of material between the concrete and the sub-grade, this layer can be called as base
or sub-base course.
In rigid pavement, load is distributed by the slab action, and the pavement behaves like an
elastic plate resting on a viscous medium (Figure 4). Rigid pavements are constructed by
Portland cement concrete (PCC) and should be analyzed by plate theory instead of layer
theory, assuming an elastic plate resting on viscous foundation. Plate theory is a simplified
version of layer theory that assumes the concrete slab as a medium thick plate which is
plane before loading and to remain plane after loading. Bending of the slab due to wheel
load and temperature variation and the resulting tensile and flexural stress

2.5 Work Plan to be adopted for road construction :

 To start with, this project, a workshop is to be organized first in collaboration with
the local municipal authorities and discuss all pros and cons of the construction
issue in that particular area.
 A project manager is to be appointed who is to prepare the construction schedule,
allocate manpower, equipments and machines and also handle the budget.
 Other workers need to be assigned for different jobs involved in the project.
 Each step of construction needs proper analysis and corrections whenever
required.
 A final overview is to be prepared after completion of the project

Highway planning, location designing, construction and maintenance constitute highway or highway
improvement. Several aspects including general planning and financing must be considered.

. Technical planning includes traffic needs of the area for a given period (generally 20 years) the type
of construction to meet those needs such as the most suitable location,

. layout and capacity of the new route in relation to the traffic requirement,

.terrain to be tranversed,

. value of land needed for the right of way and estimated project costs. 

Technological advancement has improved expertise in highway engineering and its related
fields of soils, road building equipment and materials.  Designs are now more economical,
more reliable; and these developments have revolutionized construction methods.  The
highway engineer is aware that a highway can be attractive as well as useful.
 REFERENCE
. from goggle
. lecture note

. lecture notes in transportation systems engineering .

. information from interview

 APPENDIX
 Vertical alignment, is defined as the elevation ,rise and fall of the route .
 Geometric design- is the process whereby the dimensions and layouts of
roads are designed to meet the needs of road users.
 Carriageway; the part of the road constructed for use by moving traffic.
 Deflection angle-the angle that a chod deflects from a tangent to acircular
curve